Restaurant Review: Le Bus Palladium, Paris

Ever since I went to Livingston, a tiny restaurant on a back street off the Cours Julien in Marseille, I have been dreaming of young chef Valentin Raffali’s stunningly elegant cooking from the canon of Escoffier.

On that rainy night, we ate a terra cotta-coloured fish soup that immediately became my new definition of a great fish soup. Rich, ruddy, and potent, it was served with focaccia topped with melted cheese and puréed garlic. This was Raffali’s homage to the bouillabaisse for which his adopted city is so famous, with the difference that I enjoyed this soup more than only one or two of the bouillabaisses I’ve eaten during the 40 years I’ve lived in France.

Next, a skate wing in beurre noisette with capers and pickled cherries, a dish that was elegant and provocative at the same time. And finally, la pièce de résistance, a ballotin of chicken stuffed with vegetables in a silken camel-coloured sauce Albufera (a roux with foie gras, white port, Madeira and Cognac), garnished with a mesclun of bitter micro-greens sprinkled with tiny cubes of foie gras. Both dishes were generously finished with slices of black truffle.

This was quite simply one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten in France, and one I’ve thought of often since I left Raffali’s table. The idea that recurred in an endless spiral of awe was the lyricism of his food, which was so imbued with tenderness and sincerity and such a deep desire to create pleasure. And his Albufera sauce was shockingly delicious, because it provoked both an emotional and a physical reaction, joy and sensual pleasure respectively.

So it was great news when I heard Raffali had been hired to helm the kitchen at Le Bus Palladium, a legendary 1970-80s Paris rock-and-roll club that’s recently been converted into, believe it or not, a 35-room five-star luxury hotel. On the other hand, I also worried about how he’d fend in such a big, visible job in the catty pressure-cooker environment of the Paris food world. He certainly has the talent for the job, or to take over the kitchen at any of the most famous restaurants in the French capital, but Le Bus Palladium would be a long way from the cosy little back street restaurant in Marseille where he cooked for an adoring local crowd, including many regulars.

Arriving at Le Bus Palladium, I had to pinch myself to believe it was the same place where I’d once spent many boisterous (decorous word choice) evenings. Revamped by Studio KO, the most on-point interior design firm in Paris right now, the hotel has a sort of Alice Through the Looking Glass décor that references its joyously disreputable past, specifically a patch of time when disco, rock and punk overlapped in Paris nightlife. Think Halston meets Sid Vicious. Or the new address’s égérie, Patti Smith, bien sûr. The restaurant was heaving when I arrived to meet a friend from Leeds for dinner, and the room was populated with an intriguing assortment of A-list Parisians from the city’s different creative tribes.

Raffali’s manic energy is very much reflected by his eclectic menu, which he tinkers with constantly. In every version, however, it offers a fascinating snapshot of how Paris likes to eat these days, proposing a mixture of French comfort food classics with edgier preparations of diverse inspiration, often Asian or North African.

It was daring of Raffali to put Roman-style tripe on the menu as a starter, because fashion-restaurant food runs towards insipid calorie-conscious dishes like salmon tartare, beef carpaccio, burrata and roast chicken. Raffali’s version was beautifully cooked and garnished with Parmesan and fresh mint. We also loved an order of grilled langoustines with homemade XO sauce (a Hong Kong condiment made with dried shrimp and red chillies), while a salad of artichokes with baby peas, fava beans and fermented pineapple was a fascinating mixture of tastes and textures.

A tarte tatin of onions and girolles mushrooms with haricots verts and salted apricots was brilliant summer eating, while the Thai-style pig’s foot that my intrepid friend ordered was a succulent and messy adventure redolent of Thai basil, lemongrass and others. The dessert not to miss is the braided doughnut with blueberries and almond ice cream. A caveat or two. Service was rather frantic, absent-minded and not very friendly at the beginning of our meal, but improved during the evening; it will take some time for the both the chef and the dining room team to settle in, especially since this place has become so popular. So book a table as far in advance as possible, choose an early reservation over a late one for reasons of noise, and go armed with a store of good-humoured patience.

Le Restaurant, Bus Palladium Hotel, 6 rue Pierre Fontaine, 9th arrondissement, +33 01 89 56 40 50; www.buspalladium.com

Lead photo credit : Stunning cuisine awaits at Le Bus Palladium in Paris’ 9th arrondissement